The new year post

I’m given to understand blogging is now a so-yesterday thing to do. While that might be confronting for someone who was alive well before the bloggosphere became a thing, I’ll take the tack of imagining I’m some kind of long-lived and wise immortal who can laugh at the rise and fall of trends. Muhaha.

Or, I’ll just be what I often am … retro, or a little out of step with everyone else. So be it.

In the spirit of being more in-step, I’m doing the kick-off post for the new year. I’m not a new year resolver type, but there’s something in rituals, or at least, little things we do to put our focus in the place it needs to be (even if we really could just go a few more days or weeks of the party season). I’m not going to say anything about 2020. Such words run the risk of saying far too much, or far too little, or running to tortured cliche.

So. I have three months left in the Arts Queensland grant timetable. Those activities are fairly well in hand. “Twenty-Six Letters” has been sent out to look for a publishing home, and now I’m working on the SF novel “Coderunner”. This is a book that I started writing back in 2011, and boy it reads like I had a lot of energy back then! In addition to that, there is the thread of my (really very good) day job that stitches my week together. That starts again this week, too.

I’m also kicking back into the 10% Happier New Year Challenge. Meditation is something I started formally more than a year ago, and it waxes and wanes in my life as it helps, and as I then become slack, and back again. This week I think especially I’ll need it.

New Years is a bit of a challenging time for me (as it is for many, I’ll guess) … the holiday come-down can hit pretty hard, the stuff you could gaily avoid before Christmas comes knocking, and there’s a tendency to navel-gaze at the gaps between the life/career you have and the one you might covet. But there’s comfort in routine in all that maelstrom, and in not running away from it. Easy to say. Teeth-grit easing into slow relax in practice.

And that’s all I think I’m going to say. The rest is doing. Wishing you the best in all your new doings, too :)

If you're an aspiring career writer, maybe you should be looking at FIRE

Writing careers have a reputation for being financially unstable. Many new writers are told to expect not to make money (perhaps ever) from their work - the old nugget “don’t quit your day job” is a mantra. The recent #publishingpaidme Twitter flurry, while it may have started to highlight racial inequalities in payment, also had a side bar for Australian writers: expect to be paid a lot less here.

This reality of writing pay (I personally feel) often gets used to put aspiring writers down / in their place, one of the many sticks of discouragement not to venture into the industry at all. I don’t like that, but for now, let’s acknowledge that even an “established” author, who’s had a good number of books published, is likely not making a living (even a poor living) from their work. Or if they do, the any certainty of continuing to make a living is not there.

This leaves the aspiring career writer with potentially fulfilling the starving artist stereotype, or slogging away at the soul-crushing day job while writing their work in the cracks and dreaming better times that may actually never come. And honestly, who wants those as the options?

Many writers acknowledge this problem, and talk about playing the long game and doing the work, and being clear about why we do this. And that’s all great. But it still shackles you in the long-term to the luck of the industry. No one ever seems to talk about how else you might be able to industry-proof your writing career. Maybe because it’s somehow dirty to talk about money and art? Or because people’s eyes glaze over when we start to talk about finances?

Whatever it is, fine. If you’re content to roll the dice and hope, have at it. I’m not content with that. And if you’re not, too, then this is where we come to FIRE.

How I got to thinking this way

I’m not just talking out my arse here. We started again with finances in our mid-30s thanks to the stellar combination of terrible investment advice and the GFC. It was the most awful, shitty shit time of my life. Think massive debts and financial advisors who just vanished overnight. We were great with numbers and saving, but we didn’t know how financial services work, and we were clueless about what we’d gotten into. I learned many lessons, but the biggest was NEVER trust other people with your financial security. As I result, I’ve educated myself, learned to trust what I know, and it’s during that education that I came across FIRE.

What is FIRE?

It stands for “financial independence, retire early”, and does what it says on the box. The idea is to live well within your means, stash everything else in investment assets (for me, this means incoming-producing assets like low-cost index funds) and through time, patience and compounding, gain freedom from the 9-5. If you want to know more about FIRE, I’d recommend going to other places, like Aussie Fire Bug and Pat the Shuffler. I’m not an all-things-FIRE officianado. If you don’t want to go hard at FIRE to begin with and need some more basic and easy to follow financial sense to ease into it, then I’d start where I did, with the Barefoot Investor.

(Note: I’m serious about not trusting other people with your finances - don’t take mine or anyone’s word for anything. Do your own research. Make your own choices.)

Where FIRE meets writing

It seems a no-brainer to me that if you aspire to write full-time, knowing it comes with no guarantee of income (let alone riches), that a smart strategy is to make the income-from-writing not a factor. If I’d known these things in my early 20s, instead of taking financial advice from dirty scum line-our-own-pockets advisors, I would have reached the goal in my early 30s. Even now, into my 40s and only a couple of years into doing this, I consider it more than worthwhile. If I get an extra 10 years to write without money worries, fantastic.

I know what some people must be thinking. But I’m not good with money. But that sounds impossible on a lower income / with kids / with debts. I’m not here to tell you this is for everyone, but there’s many people out there in those situations who’ve made it work. If you have a spark of interest at the idea, then do the reading. And the earlier you start, the better it is. There are, of course, trade-offs. Some of the downsides are:

• Needing to live well within your means.

• Needing to face what you actually spend and owe. I mean really face it.

• Needing to stick to a savings/investment program for a good number of years.

If, however, the longer-term goal (writing with a totally writing-independent supporting income) means more to you than a plethora of today’s pleasures, this might be worth looking into. Yes, you’re going to have to practice your writing art while doing other work for some years, but not forever. And you’re probably already doing some version of that - wouldn’t you like to know it will be limited in duration? I can’t imagine anything better than knowing that there will be a day within my control (not the publishing industry’s control) where I won’t depend on writing/teaching/freelancing for money.

So, if you’re aspiring to write full-time (long before retirement), perhaps have a look at FIRE.

Some good news - I got a grant!

About a year ago, things were very different in my corner of writing land. I still had a relationship with my publisher, I was finishing up my PhD, an no one had heard of COVID-19. I imagine most of us had a different view of things back then.

Even without COVID, there’s been a veritable mangle set of stuff go on between then and now. It’s not all bad. It’s not all good, either. Mostly, it’s just been change, which is usually a good dollop from both buckets.

However, a few things have clicked into place in the last few months, and one I can finally talk about is that I’ve been successful in landing a grant from Arts Queensland. This will allow me to boot straight into writing work for about 6 months from September, producing three new stories (2 novels and 1 novella) across both genres I write, plus some workshop proposals for writers and a few other things (this includes the Twenty-six Letters novel that my readers here have heard about, and two SF projects, which I’ll talk about over on the other blog). All these projects have been things I just haven’t been able to get to over the last more-than-a-year. It’s phenomenal to have this chance to lean back in hard to creative work. I can’t wait.

So, thanks to Arts Queensland for the opportunity, and to all the other people in my life who have made it possible to do this, including my awesome writing buddy, my family, and my super cool workplace. It’s a real team effort. I’m looking forward to making good on your support.

This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

On A Starlit Ocean ... a Q&A

My new book, On A Starlit Ocean, is out today. It’s been a little over a year since my last, and this one is a little different for a few reasons. So I’m doing the slightly obnoxious thing of doing a Q&A with myself … if it’s good enough for Matthew Reilly, I figured it’s fair game :)

Is On A Starlit Ocean part of the Walker-Bell Saga?

Yes and no. I originally wrote the story’s first draft after Crystal Creek (Book 3 of the Walker-Bells). Before I began, I had in mind it would be Travers’ story, but as I wrote it became apparent that this wasn’t that story. So, you will find one minor recurring character, and the hero Dr Bell is a distant cousin of Daniella (Ryders Ridge, Book 1), but for all other purposes you can read this as a stand alone.

Where did the story come from?

Sailing has been a long time passion for me, and when I first wrote this story, I was fresh off a trip to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, skippering a yacht (read: packing it that I was responsible for not damaging the yacht) with my husband and two friends. We sailed around azure water bays, wandered on unpopulated beaches, watched penguins and dolphins, and tried not to snag the keel on hidden rocks. I remember listening to a lot of Simon and Garfunkle. After a few days of worrying the boat will drag the anchor overnight, sailing settles into a kind of zen that I haven’t found in any other part of life. There’s something about being commanded by the wind and tide, an essential need to go with things as they are happening, that’s restful.

Me enjoys the yachting

Our boat, anchored in Oke Bay, after climbing the hill.

‘Twas a tough time. Real tough.

As far as a story went, I wanted to write Erin’s story, someone who is the exact opposite - restless after an event that happened four years ago and drove her from home. The whole story is about restlessness really … a businessman who can’t be satisfied (the “old flame”), a capable and good-hearted doctor who is secretly drifting (the “new man”), the unsettling legacy of a secret on a sister and mother … even a restless ghost from the island’s past and the artist who paints her. Of course, the story is then about bringing those many unsettlings to rest.

I had also done a bit of yacht racing, which is pretty exciting (at least, if the wind is blowing). And both sides of sailing come together with a complicated romance in On A Starlit Ocean..

Yacht racing now … that involves being up at all hours for your watch shift, and doing radio call-ins while dressed in becoming safety gear.

But … sometimes you win! (at least a minor placing). With the crew of the 2012 Brisbane to Keppel Yacht Race Southern Cross Yachting Team. Oh, you get a pineapple for finishing, that’s why we have one.

Is the island based on a real place?

On A Starlit Ocean features a paradise of a tropical island (whose beauty is no exaggeration if you’ve never had the pleasure of a Queensland island!). It’s absolutely inspired by a real place - Great Keppel Island, off Yeppoon on the Queensland coast. Like the island in the book, the resort there was a victim of the non-viability of island resorts once the airlines sold them off. I’ve heard recently it might be being redeveloped. Maybe.

… so, what happened to Twenty-Six Letters?

If you’re a long time reader of my Facebook or blog, you’ll know that I’ve been floating Twenty-Six Letters as my next book - a stand-alone, cross-generational women’s fiction saga that centres on twenty-six lost letters from a long-dead mother to her daughter.

This book hasn’t gone away, but it’s lead time did increase. I am looking for a new publishing home for it, and it needs to go through a good editorial process. I have a structural report, so that can begin soon. I utterly love the story, so it will be coming. But I’d been working on On A Starlit Ocean last year, so it happened to be ready first.

Where can I find the book?

All the details on the ebook or paperback are here. Please get in touch with me if you have any trouble. :)

How I manage the money part of writing

I’m writing this post for two reasons - firstly, because finances are an omnipresent train of thought for me. I’ve always been a bit interested in money, an extension of an interest in numbers. However, it was really the experience of being both poorly advised and flagrantly defrauded by actual licensed financial advisors that really sharpened my desire to be in full informed control of all things money. That experience is fortunately in the 10+ plus past now, and I’ve long left behind the idea that managing money is in any way mystical. There’s a lot of bullshit around in the financial world, but I’ve hard-earned the confidence to call it now.

***This is where I’ll put the disclaimer that I am not a financial advisor, and nothing in this post should be taken as financial advice. I’m sharing my approach to managing writing income for the interest of fellow writers. You should talk to your own accountant to discuss your own situation.

The second reason is the reminder in Peter M Ball’s newsletter today about the subject of writers and money. Writers tend to get lumped together into the artsy-and-no-good-with-money stereotype. And let’s face it, for many, spreadsheets are the enemy. But writing is one of the hardest professions to make a living at, and the money can be sporadic and its easy to get caught out with taxes. So, in the spirit of sharing strategies, I’m putting down here how I do it. I’m a bit ruthless, with good reason.

1. Keep track. There is fancy accounting software, but I use a simple spreadsheet to track Expenses, Invoices, Car kms, Travel, and BAS calcs (each on a separate tab). The spreadsheet automatically calculates certain things, like how much I can claim from an expense, or how to distribute any income (more on that below).

2. Record invoices. Each time I issue an invoice, I record it in the invoices tab, and the sheet tracks how long it’s been since I sent any particular invoice. That allows me to easily follow up on tardy payers. And there are many.

3. Divide each piece of income into set pieces. This is the really practical part. There’s nothing regular about my income, so the only way to do this is to divide each and every payment** that comes in, no matter how big or small: **after removing 10% GST for Australian income - if you’re not registered you don’t have to do this.

   • 15% for super. The current mandatory super payment for employees is, I think, 9.5%. But the word for a long time is that this isn’t sufficient, so I pay myself 15%. I don’t see this as optional. I also use an ultra low-cost fund, because the fees are what robs you in the long term (I use the Barefoot Investor’s approach on that front). Super isn’t sexy, but it’s important. I pay the owed amount into my fund about every quarter.

   • 20% for tax. I hold the tax in a separate account (along with GST, super and operating costs) until I do my BAS each quarter, and any extra until tax return time. Most years, I earn not very much and so I get most of that back as a “refund” (plus I pay installments with my BAS). No one likes being caught out owing money and having none to pay it, though, so I keep the tax aside. For my level of income, 20% has proved to be more than enough.

   • 15% for operating costs. My business has costs - paper, internet bills, advertising, books, conferences, flights. That money should come where possible from the business … if it’s coming from somewhere else, than the business isn’t profitable. Many writers run unprofitable businesses, especially in the early years, but holding 15% of my income for expenses irons out the worries I have about meeting, say, a membership renewal when it falls due.

   • What’s left (50%) into my pocket. It doesn’t feel great to have each payment cut in half before it lands in my bank, but that’s how I run things. I can’t imagine how I would plan for the future, avoid tax surprises, and have operating money any other way. It’s a hard truth, but I believe that if I can’t live on the 50% that’s left, then my writing isn’t a viable job, it’s a side hustle (and this is me). And that means I’m doing other things, too, like teaching. But my income is still important; even with a working spouse many of us aren’t solvent on that other person’s income. So I treat it importantly. It’s part of maintaining the health of the business.

   • I further split that 50% in my pocket into different pots in my “normal” accounts, which includes spending, saving, and long-term investing. I’m not going to get into that here … just to say that personal finances are a bit like the sun for many people - painful to look at for long. But having been through the utter grossness of being under heavy debt after the GFC, I find it now better to stare the money reality in the face and make long term plans I can stick to. If you don’t know where to start, I would recommend the Barefoot Investor’s approach. I have found it doable.

4. Take care with expenses. I’ve found many writers with misconceptions about what you can claim as an expense. For example, to my knowledge, you can’t claim your “business lunch” with writer colleagues, unless you’re actually away from home overnight. You can, however, claim a portion of movie tickets (as narrative education), and there are ways to even out your income over the years … this comes from having an arts-specialist accountant. I strongly encourage you to try and find one.

5. Record all travel. Travel has particular rules around what you can claim - I need to be working a certain number of hours each day to claim that day. I keep a travel log to keep all that above board. I also periodically keep a log of phone and computer use so I can justify the percentage I claim for my business expenses.

6. Separate business accounts - one for expenses, one for lay-away. I use linked accounts - one is a transaction account with a debit Visa (income comes in here, and expenses go out), the other a high-interest savings account (that’s where all the super, tax, GST and operating expenses money goes when each invoice gets divided). My account has an auto-top-up feature, so I don’t ever worry that there won’t be money there if, say, I’m running Amazon Ads, or a website renewal comes in.

7. Avoid credit like the poxy plague it is. Credit cards are awful, and seductive. I run things without one now, and it’s freedom to do so. See above about operating expenses … if I don’t have the money, I don’t have the money. If there’s something I want to do that the business can’t afford (like a conference trip), then I have to be prepared to pay for it from other savings. Writing incomes are so fickle … I won’t add debt into that mix ever again.

So that’s the essentials. There are other things I could talk about, like how I organise expense and invoice filing, but I think that’s enough for now. If anyone’s interested in a blank copy of my tracking spreadsheet, I’m happy to share it. I wish everyone fortitude in dealing with the numbers, especially if it’s not your thing.

The Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle is an initiative of Peter M Ball, aimed at fostering a community of creatives. It asks three check-in questions, and you can read Peter’s post for this week here, which also contains links for the rationale and how to participate yourself, if you’d like. I don’t make it every week, and I also usually post them over on my other blog, because it feels more natural to talk about the full breadth of my writing practice (including all the sci-fi and fantasy) there. However, this week it feels like it fits more comfortably here, so here we go :)

What are you working on this week?

It’s marking season at university, so this week I have the tail-end of that to do, mostly essays that have extensions. I generally enjoy marking - I learn incredible things from my students, and I’m exposed to a host of new ideas, new content, and new thoughts, along with the practice being part of ongoing craft development for myself. The part that’s less enjoyable is the time crush to have everything in by a certain date, but generally that’s manageable.

Other than marking, I return to my thesis this week. I’ll have both the novel and exegesis draft back from the respective readers, so it’s really in my court now to clean everything up and compile the final document for submission. I’m about 5-6 weeks away from that.

In one further job, I need to send my thesis novel manuscript out on query, so it can join my next Charlotte Nash book in being out for consideration and hoping to find a publishing home for it.

What’s inspiring me this week?

The Emerging Writer’s Festival. I’ve been privileged to be a festival ambassador this year, and I’m writing this blog from the green room at The Wheeler Centre, the main conference venue. I’ve met so many enthusiastic early-career creatives, and more established writers and professionals. I’ve a whole page of thoughts and valuable contributions I’ve taken away from the discussions, This is the incredible benefit of in-person attendance at industry events. And while there is also always a rub - chiefly in the comparisons we all naturally make to others - I’ve learned how to debrief afterwards to take the benefits forward and leave the doubt mostly behind.

Some of the highlights for me have been meeting (and being on a panel) with Melbourne author Melanie Cheng, who writes sensitive and powerful stories of modern Australia. If your enjoy literary work, I can recommend checking her out. Also, mindfulness facilitator Andrea Featherstone, whose session on mindfulness and guided meditation was an excellent reminder of the benefits all writers can find in training our attention. Finally all my 5x5 rules of writing co-panelists: Toni Jordan, who was so funny and reminded us to take care of our backs; Maria Tumarkin, who gave the most artistic and lyrical anti-rules treatise I’ve ever heard; Alison Whittaker, who reminded us of the value of sometimes stepping away from writing; and Katherine Brabon, who spoke about being comfortable with gaps and silences, among other things. You can find links to them all here. Lastly, Carl (Karl?), an aspiring romance writer whose attitude and enthusiasm made my day. I wish everyone I met the very best with their writing.

What action do I need to take?

I need to close out marking and some other teaching obligations early in the week, and remain focused on the thesis after that, ahead of useful time becoming difficult in the school holidays.

In the background there’s the niggling need to plan for what happens when my scholarship ends (also in about 6 weeks), and start re-jigging the finances to cater for it. Oh, and being the end of the quarter and financial year, there’s the check-list of business things to attend to so I can rule a line under the year, and start the next one.

Shooting for 5 stars ... or why I decided to leave indie book review groups

NOTE: EDITED 28 March to add note about "minimum viable product".

I admire indie authors and have absolutely nothing against indie publishing - I republished my backlist as an indie earlier this year and every story you've heard is true: about how much work it is, how subject to luck it is, how long-term the game can be.

In that game, reviews - especially Amazon reviews - are like gold. All kinds of speculation abounds about the number of reviews you need to be treated well by the algorithm. Regardless of the truth of that, reviews definitely matter. Books without reviews are very hard to sell. Some promotion services won't accept your book without a certain number of reviews, and with an average above a certain number of stars.

So, it should be entirely predictable what happens next. Indie authors work out how to most effectively get more reviews.

This isn't a sock puppet story. Amazon has rules about that, and they also have rules about review swapping. And so when you enter reviewing clubs (mostly on Facebook) you'll find all kinds of elaborate rule sets designed to ensure that reviews are NOT swapped and that all is above board with Amazon. The groups vary enormously in how they run - some are only for "free" books, some require you to purchase the book. Some do monthly assignments, others keep a rolling review-last-post list, others just have open posts. The thing is, however they run, the rule sets usually include a policy about what to do if you don't want to give a book 4- or 5- stars.

And here, I ran into my problem.

The first book I ever reviewed, I couldn't give it more than 2 stars. I don't even know where to begin with the editing it needed. The site asked me to contact the author, which I did, and they were gracious about the feedback. That group's policy was if you couldn't give at least 3-stars, they preferred you contact the author first. That, I can almost be ok with - because at 2-stars, the book probably has huge problems that an author probably needs help with, rather than a flaming through the Amazon star system. But then this month, on a new group where I had paid for the books I was reviewing, I posted two reviews, one 3-star, one 4-star. Then next thing, I had a message telling me that in future, I needed to contact the author if I wanted to give a 3-star review (equivalent to "It's Okay" on the star scale), and give them the choice of whether to accept it.

I'm sorry, what now?

Look, reviews are the author's bane. Bad reviews are hell. But I have never in my life expected that I had the right to reply, let alone to silence a reviewer who wanted to give me a less than stelllar review. And yet here, in this club, the expectation is that an author can choose not to accept a review under 4-stars, anything less that "I liked it". What happens with a rule like this? I would suggest that predictably, reviewers feel pressure not to rate under 4-stars. Because then, you have to have that uncomfortable conversation direct with the author, telling them that their book was only "okay" in your eyes and asking if they're ok with that opinion going live. I'm not fine with that. I also highly resent being told to do this when I PURCHASED THE BOOK. I subscribe to the philosophy that someone who's paid to read my book can say whatever they want. That's just the nature of the industry. 

I expressed my discomfort with the rule, and in the conversation with the (admittedly lovely) admin of the group, it was clear they didn't really understand why I had a problem. Not posting the review doesn't increase the author's ranking, I was told. Well, that's obvious, but it also skirts around the fact that their books rating doesn't decrease, either. This is the book reviewing equivalent of academic publishing's Achilles heel - no one publishes negative results, so the published record is skewed towards studies where a positive result was seen. So too then with book reviews, and I'm so frustrated with buying indie books stuffed full of 4- and 5-star reviews and finding they aren't that good. Not just not-my-taste not good but poorly written, wouldn't make it out of the slush pile not good. I never understood what was going on there. Now, I wonder if it's just group and club reviews pushing up ratings by deterring anyone who thinks different.*** The admin told me it was totally my choice to give a poor review, just not every author wanted to receive a 3-star review, that's why I had to contact them. Yeah, really missing the point!!

So I did the only thing I can do: I made my choice to leave.

I'm not going to be part of it, this culture of reviewing books of fellow indie authors with the punitive demon of a no-low-reviews sitting on my shoulder. It's against every value I have of fairness and justice and honesty. Reading these books takes a good deal of precious time, as does writing a considered and honest review. If I've paid to boot, then I'm damn well going to be honest about it, and not be held to a rule that allows an author to say, "no thanks, that review's no good for my ranking". But on Facebook, you can't be anonymous. Your picture is right there next to the reviews you've done. I felt I had no choice but so say I couldn't subscribe to the rule, and to bow out. I'm not handing out my reviewing time under those conditions.

So, I wish everyone luck. Indie authordom is a tough gig, but no one is really served by setting up an environment like this. It encourages inflated reviews, encourages skim reading, encourages reviews as a currency, rather than as a reflection of the book itself. Direct interaction between authors and reviewers is always fraught, and in this case, see nothing but conflict. So I choose not to engage. I feel the better for it.

***after publishing this blog, I came across the concept of minimum viable product, through Peter M Ball's newsletter. Basically, this is the idea that you put out a minimum standard of product to draw people in, because raising it to the quality of a fully finished and refined product exceeds your capabilities/resources/patience. A lot of indie publishing, I suspect, falls into this category, either deliberately or through lack of knowledge for how to actually edit a story to a high standard. I've even had an author tell me directly that they'd had a lot of trouble with a book that just didn't quite work, but they'd decided to push it out there anyway just to see how it might do. Now, not every indie is doing that. But the fact that some (many?) are doing this makes the concept of not allowing low reviews even less palatable.

What other people think

On dealing with online judgement, with some great words to remember

Any writer will tell you that dealing with reviews is a tough gig. Issac Asimov is supposed to have said that writers "fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review."

We all have different techniques for dealing with it. Mine is to not read reviews (works most of the time, but sometimes I must to say, maintain this website). One other writer I know takes a pragmatic approach and says that as long as someone's paid for her book, they can write whatever they like.

But there's no avoiding the fact that the online nature of the world now means that what other people think of you -- your books, or just you -- can be right in your face. If you write romance, or you self-publish, that can be particularly sharp, because so many people think that it's fine to take a dig at you (including big respectable institutions, like this in The Guardian and this in The New York Times) and make fun of what you do because, I don't know, they feel morally superior or something like that. People who are in privileged positions will do it, even though it's really beneath them to be so petty. They do it anyway. I've had it happen to me so many times I've lost count.

When you're starting out on a new venture (as I am right now - can't share details yet, but I will) you're particularly vulnerable to that. And so I wanted to share with you this from the Barefoot Investor that landed in my inbox this week. As someone who's been through financial ruin due to predatory financial advice, I'm a keen follower of Scott Pape and his no BS independent stance, but please know that I don't have any association with him. This is just very timely and important to remember advice, I think. 

“Truth is, most people worry about what other people say about them.

Yet here’s the rub: if you’re doing brave things — working hard, starting a business, kicking arse with the Barefoot Steps — chances are you’re going to make someone around you feel uncomfortable. And they may try to bring you down a peg or two … back to their level.

If you listen to them — or worry about what you think they’d think — it’ll eat away at your self-confidence. And that will keep you in jobs you don’t like, relationships you’ve outgrown, cars you can’t afford. Worse, it’ll waste the precious time you have on this planet.

What’s the answer?

Care with both hands. I can count the number of people I care about on two hands — chances are you can too. And when you think about it deeply (and I have), these are the only people who matter.

If you’re being a jerk, or hurting people, or behaving like a Kardashian — they’ll pull you up on it. And that’s the only time you need to worry about someone’s else’s opinion. For the rest, just talk to the hand.”

— -- Scott Pape, Barefoot Investor Newsletter, 25 Sep 17

So, for all those doing brave things, carry on. If you see someone trying to be brave, lift them up. The world will be cruel enough. And don't be afraid to call out your friends when they behave like jerks to other people beneath them. Hard to do, but important.

The Travelling Epic - Geocaching meets writing

A few years ago when hand-held GPS was kinda new, the ManBeast and I invested in a bright yellow Garmin. Not one with maps in it for the car, but a rugged looking outdoorsy thing. The reason? We wanted to try geocaching, a friendly sport where people hide caches, and post GPS coordinates online for other people to find them. As a keen fan of any buried treasure story, I found this awesome fun. The thrill of the chase! The highs and lows of finding (or not) the cache! And the fun times avoiding detection by muggles (non-geocachers). These days, of course, you can do it with a mobile phone.

Now, caches come in all sizes, but many are the size of an eclipse mint tin. Most caches contain simply a log-book and a few knick-knacks to swap in and out, like the stuff you get in Christmas bon-bons. But when it came to making our own caches, I had an idea for one with a difference. I called it The Travelling Epic and it began the tale of Gordo, the Magnificent. The idea was that each finder would add three sentences of Gordo's story, then move the cache to a new location and post the coordinates. The idea was that the story would grow and travel. I loved the idea. I still do.

Sadly, all has not gone smoothly for Gordo. Over my time in New Zealand, it appears the cache has disappeared. I went to the last posted coordinates last weekend to check for myself, and lo, he was not there. :( This happens. Caches get cleaned up (a cache I made called "Ripley's Cache", where finders had to solve clues based on Aliens to get the coordinates disappeared from its hiding spot) or succumb to the environment (another of my caches, "Shiver me Timbers!", which was a swap cache for foreign coins, disappeared in the 2011 flood).

However ... in the case of Gordo, it was fortunate that one of the earlier hiders sent me a type up of where the story had reached. More entries since this have been lost, but like any treasure, this is just part of the story. So, here, I give you the account of Gordo as I have it now. I'll try to get a new cache out there and circulating again. There's always more to the story :)

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The Tale of Gordo, the Magnificent [a travelling geocache story]

6 February 2007 by WHITE HORSE (me) & KELVINATOR (the ManBeast)

Standing head and shoulders above other warriors, Gordo the Magnificent, blond and burly, was a king among men. On the third Sunday after Springfest, and after a long trek through the southern forest under stormy skies, he arrived at an unfamiliar precipice, yawning five strides across and deeper than what could be seen. Gordo cursed; there had been enough delays already on this errand and all ten men with him were getting edgy.

26 March 2007 by CEBIDAE

There was nothing that could be done about it tonight though, so Gordo had his men set up camp for the evening.

After a restless night contemplating his current predicament, Gordo was having breakfast in his tent when the watch reported that a dust trail was spotted on the horizon. As the camp was packed up for the trek to find a pass over the ravine, it became clear that a single rider was approaching them, fast.

11 June 2007 by WIZ & THE NAVIGATOR

He looked again, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. Never had he seen such an awesome horseman – or maybe this wasn’t a horseman at all…? Gordo woke up – realizing that the dream he had was so real – so vivid – so incredible amazing that he had trouble finding his path back into the real world – or was it …?

26 October 2007 by SUNSHINE TOLEDO

This dream had been haunting Gordo for many years as he was aware that there was no dry land around here. The forest was thick, lush and dripping with the fruits of recent rain, good soil and Spring weather. Why did he dream of deserts and dry dusty tracks across vast treeless plains?

16 November 2007 by CREW153

His mind went back to his childhood when the dreams first began. As a son of a farmer and brother to 3 older boys he had led an idyllic life of plenty in a land of prosperity. At the age of 18 this all changed.

18 August 2008 by K8’n’Co

Marauding hordes of barbarians were marching out of Dredendorf Land in the north, raping, pillaging and burning all in their path. The people of Nerengal fled before the ferocious invaders, but they would soon converge on the safe enclave of Sensursey in the Valley of Everog, the last stronghold of Gordo’s countrymen. All men of age had been summoned to defend Sensursey and as Gordo, his father and brothers stood at the fortified city walls, watching the rising dust of the approaching Dredendorflander onslaught, they knew that to defeat this juggernaut they would have to rely on their special powers.

6 August 2008 OMY130 X&S

Standing 10 abreast along the city walls, each man thought of loved ones which they may never see again. Gordo held his mighty sword high and conjured the thought of kindred spirits to make his blows fast and true…

17 December 2008 by the olly’s

all of a sudden the skies blackened, the winds roared, lightning blots blasted the earth and brought down trees around them and the heavens opened up, drenching Gordo and his men.

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If you want to give geocaching a go, see: http://geocaching.com.au/.